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1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of telecommunication services, and in particular, to a system that provides service assurance for prepaid telecommunication services.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a prepaid telecommunication service, the customer caller obtains a prepaid account with a monetary amount or a period of time that is debited when a call is made. Customers have increasingly demanded more prepaid telecommunication services due to the stability of flat fee rates, the avoidance of calling collect, and the flexibility to make a call from anywhere at any time. Consequently, the systems that provide prepaid telecommunication services have become more complex and diverse.
Testing of these prepaid telecommunication systems typically has been manually intensive and time consuming. People who test simply simulate calls and report problems that need to be corrected. Prepaid telecommunication systems providers then re-deploy solutions to the reported problems in a manually intensive fashion. Prepaid telecommunication service providers have also relied on customers to report problems. The provider then reacts and corrects problems with the prepaid telecommunication service.
The problem is that the testing of the prepaid telecommunication systems has been too slow and cost ineffective. Consumption of human labor to test systems is not only expensive but also erratic. The slow testing also delays modifications and enhancements to the prepaid telecommunication service. Additionally, the prepaid telecommunication provider unfairly burdens prepaid calling customers to report problems. As the customer encounters more problems, customer satisfaction with the prepaid telecommunication service decreases.
The invention solves the above problem by providing service assurance for prepaid telecommunication services. The invention automatically generates a call to the prepaid telecommunication system. In response to the call, the invention then receives an actual response from the prepaid telecommunication system. Examples of actual responses are pre-recorded messages and voice calls. The invention automatically compares the actual response with an expected response for the prepaid telecommunication system. The expected response could be any communication from the prepaid telecommunication system that is anticipated to check the provision of the prepaid telecommunication service. By automatically comparing the actual response and the expected response, the invention checks the provision of the prepaid telecommunication service to identify problems such as incorrect messaging, timing of messages, and unacceptable quality of lines and circuit.
In other embodiments, the invention determines whether a modification action is needed based on the comparison of the actual response and the expected response. The modification action could be any action or notification for correcting any errors in the prepaid telecommunication system and/or altering the provision of the prepaid telecommunication service. Some examples of modification actions are reassigning resources in the prepaid telecommunication system, blocking calls, and changing service logic in the prepaid telecommunication system. After determining that the modification action is needed, the invention identifies the modification action based on the determination. The invention then transmits an instruction to provide the modification action for the prepaid telecommunication system.
Human testers are no longer needed to simulate calls and run through testing scenarios. The invention proactively probes for problems with the prepaid telecommunication system to provide greater service assurance. When new prepaid telecommunication service features are enhanced or modified, implementation times will be reduced due to the invention reducing testing times of the new features. Also, the invention provides self-healing of the prepaid telecommunication system by using the modification actions to correct detected errors. Thus, with greater quality of prepaid telecommunication service, customer satisfaction would improve. Less errors are exposed to the customer to avoid customer dissatisfaction. The invention also alleviates the customer burden of coming across service errors and reporting them.